Director Jonah Hill’s vision
He owes it all to “The Simpsons.”
NEW YORK – Jonah Hill might never have become a filmmaker had it not been for “The Simpsons.”
The show went on the air when he was 5, and Hill remembers his parents asking, “‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ And I said, ‘Live in Springfield,’ “the fictional town where the animated sitcom is set.
“They said, ‘That’s not a possibility, but there’s people who say what Homer says and people who write what Homer says.’ I said, ‘I want to write what Homer says.’ ”
Hill estimates he wrote roughly 100 of his own “Simpsons” scripts by the time he turned 18 – going so far as to send letters to the show’s writers with ideas, all of which went unanswered. But he eventually got his payback when he voiced a character in a 2009 episode.
“I took a tour of the writers’ room and berated a few of them for not ever writing me back,” Hill jokes. “I was 7 and could’ve really used the encouragement.”
Now, Hill is fulfilling a dream with his directorial debut “Mid90s” (in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands nationwide Oct. 26), a loosely autobiographical coming-of-age drama that combines the actor’s three loves: movies, skateboarding and hip-hop.
Set in 1990s Los Angeles, the story follows 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic, who is himself 13) as he takes up skateboarding and befriends a group of deeply irresponsible but ultimately caring older boys. Pint-sized yet plucky, Stevie soon finds the courage to stand up to his abusive older brother (Lucas Hedges) while getting his first tastes of alcohol, drugs and girls.
Hill, 34, wrote “Mid90s” over a threeyear period and wanted to capture the feeling of growing up, rather than specific events from his life. The script is indebted to 1995’s “Kids” and to Hill’s directing heroes, Mike Nichols and Barry Levinson.
“You only get one shot at your first film,” Hill says. “What I noticed with people like that is that their first films seemed to mean something and come from a personal place. I just waited and took the time to understand what that was going to be for me.”
According to most critics,the wait paid off: “Mid90s” has earned 92 percent positive reviews on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. IndieWire raved that “Hill shows some of the best qualities of veteran actors who step behind the camera, with nuanced performances so real the characters practically fall off
“You only get one shot at your first film. ... First films seemed to mean something and come from a personal place. I just waited and took the time to understand what that was going to be for me.” Jonah Hill
the screen.”
Hill broke out in 2007’s “Superbad” and earned two Oscar nominations for supporting actor in 2011’s “Moneyball” and 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
He’s “incredibly sensitive to his actors, many of whom had never been in a movie before,” says “Mid90s” producer Eli Bush. “He created an environment where they had the freedom to create.”
But not everyone is smitten with the movie: Since its premiere at Toronto International Film Festival last month, a handful of journalists have taken issue with the characters’ repeated uses of homophobic and sexist slurs, as well as a suggestive scene in which Stevie has his first sexual encounter with the older Estee (Alexa Demie) at a house party.
“My set is always a remarkably respectful and safe place, and no one ever has to do anything they don’t want to do,” Hill says. “And that scene is not just meant to be shocking. The homophobia, the toxic masculinity, the misogyny – these things are shown really explicitly and honestly as they were in the time period.”
The idea was “to hold a mirror up to the way people were and show a lot of lessons that people who came up in that time period had to learn,” he says. “To me, that sexual experience is not about (Stevie): He’s terrified ... but he’s doing it because he knows it’s currency to rise up in his group. And that’s a lesson I feel people had to unlearn.”
Hill is coy about whether he’s developing any projects to direct and will next be seen and heard in a slew of 2019 movies, including “The Beach Bum” with Matthew McConaughey and “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” as the voice of Green Lantern. But he hopes to continue to do a combination of both.
“When you’re an actor, you’re a very important color in someone else’s painting. And I’ve been a really good green for a long time, and I love being green,” Hill says.
“But if a filmmaker wants to paint purple over that, they’re going to. So for me, it’s a wonderful feeling to make my own painting for the first time.”